Meixiu
Meixiu, also known under her self-given name Hēi Lóng Gōngzhǔ ("Black Dragon Princess"), is one of the few Chinese Kindred whose existence and creation has been tolerated by the Kuei-jin. She believes herself to be one of them and views the politicians and undead of China as influenced by demons. Biography Meixius father was a mid-level salary man with an automotive manufacturer, a figure she admired even though he was rarely present, preferring to spend much of his time with a mistress and a bottle rather than at home with his sickly wife and bright child. Meixiu had an unremarkable childhood, though her academic achievements marked her as a girl who would likely have successful future. As she blossomed into womanhood, though, her parents felt that her newfound beauty was a gift that should not be wasted, and they sought to marry her to the nephew of her father's boss. She refused the arrangement, furious that even her mother would allow her to be used in this way, and looked for a way to avoid this fate. She began to study politics and became embroiled in the increasingly strident student movement that demanded an end to government cronyism and corruption and a solution to the stagnant economy. She even participated in the and was present when the tanks rolled in. Meixiu suffered near fatal injuries and was saved by a traveling Malkavian, who had been blundered into the tumult after he escaped the Forbidden City with a stolen artifact and who had just regained his senses after he had succumbed to Frenzy when he was hit by machine gun fire. Meixiu awakened to her new existence completely unaware of how it had happened. The only evidence she possessed that linked her to her sire was the artifact he had stolen from the Forbidden City, for he left it to her out of a sense of guilt that possessed him at the last moment before he left her. When the Cathayans caught her, she was brutally interrogated about her origin and sentenced to destruction, but the sentence was mitigated in the last minute and she was delivered to Martino della Passaglia. Once under his protection, he had her retrieve the artifact from its hiding place and delivering it to him. No longer interested in her and unwilling to be held responsible for her, especially given the severe mood swings that plagued her and posed a regular threat to the stability of his domain, he sent her to America in 1993 to pay off a debt to Chas Voyager, the Toreador Primogen of Washington, D.C, with whom he maintained substantial financial dealings. Once she arrived, she quickly became the local attraction of the Elysium. What little Meixiu knew of her own kind only made it harder to discern any truth, for she had filled many of the tremendous gaps in her Kindred origin with her own fanciful and rather egocentric explanations for her condition, something her Giovanni ward had not discouraged. Her answers to the many questions posed by the Kindred of the domain made her a favorite among the well-heeled Damned, even if she was viewed far more as a divertissement than a peer. As it always does, Elysium's fascination with Meixiu waned, and just as quickly, so did Voyager's. She was formally released and Prince Marcus Vitel even recognized her small domain near the George Washington University campus in the hope that one night he might find some use for her. Given the demographics of the city, he hoped it might even lead to some arrangement with an influential Cathayan diplomat. Once released, Meixiu constructed a personal cosmology that explained her condition to her, based on the legend she had already patched together in her deranged mind. First and foremost, she was sure that she was not one of the Western Kindred, especially one of the ruinous Malkavians. Instead, she was a Wan Xian, identify herself as Hēi Lóng Gōngzhǔ or the Black Dragon Princess, a title to which she aspired based on her fractured memories of Chinese legend. She believed it was her destiny to one day defeat the "Demon Princes", those Cathayans who currently ruled her homeland and were possessed by demons from the most foul realm of Diyu. Currently, she searches for the Bái Zé Tu, a grimoire that contains the True Names of nearly every supernatural creature in existence. To this end, she searches for Oracle Bones, artifacts like those her sire initially stole. Furthermore, she encourages student protests and Civil Right movements in China from Washington and her haven near the university, earning her the wrath of the Kuei-jin. Tonight, Meixiu appears in Elysium less frequently, in particular because she has become aware that there seem to be Cathayan forces moving against her and her interests. By taking her search for the Oracle Bones further and further beyond the traditional boundaries of the D.C. domain, she hopes that she can build real alliances with other Kindred and thus call upon more allies to protect her from such threats should they become serious. However, her bipolar condition makes these inter-domain forays difficult and more than once they have actually hampered her goals, worrying Princes and Bishops of her stability and further suggesting to some that whatever she has actually up to might rouse the ire of some mysterious nemesis. Nevertheless, she has gained powerful allies and this convinces her even more of her status as the Black Dragon Princess. References * Category:Malkavian Category:Tenth Generation vampires Category:Vampire: The Masquerade character